Pay the Writer

The latest scam making the rounds is where a writer ghostwrites a book for an established author and the writer pays the established author for the privilege.

Yep, you read that correctly.

For example, my friend Angie is nudging me to write Book 4 of the 888-555-HERO series. If I told her she could write the book but it would be published by me under my name, and she would have to pay me $1000 to do it, would she do it?

Angie's smart enough to tell me to fuck myself, and rightfully so. She understands money flows toward the author. I understand that concept. Probably, most of you reading this understands that concept.

But amazingly, there's a ton of writers who think paying for the privilege to write under someone else's name is their ticket to riches and glory.

I've had a couple of people get snippy with me, saying I'm anti-ghostwriter. I'm not. Some folks are awesome at ghostwriting.

A gal I used to know in Houston has ghostwritten a few celebrity memoirs. I admire her skill at capturing different people's voices. And she was paid handsomely by the celebrity or the publisher for writing those memoirs. She did not pay the celebrity or the publisher for the privilege of doing all the research and text for those books.

Cthulu dammit! Not even James Patterson is that evil! He pays his ghostwriters, not the other way around.

If you are doing the writing, you should be getting paid. Here's a snippit from Dreams with Sharp Teeth: